10 Dead or Dying PR Tactics
This summer I’ll mark the 10th year since I abandoned journalism to become a public relations professional. I was recently thinking about the changes that have taken place since I made that switch, and that led me to think about all of the tactics and tools that we used to use regularly that are now dead or nearly dead. Being a blogger, I had to make a top 10 list! They’re ranked from “alive but perhaps outdated”, to “dinosaur”, to “dead as a doornail”. I’m sure I’m missing a few, so feel free to add your own in comments.
So, at the risk of sounding incredibly old, I present:
10 Dead or Dying PR Tactics:
10) Newspaper-based Media Relations Strategy
Newspapers are dying. Circulation is down. You can’t wrap your media relations strategy solely around trying to get print coverage anymore.
Status: Alive, but poor strategy
9) Deskside Reporter Meetings
These are the sit-down meetings where you get to know reporters and/or pitch them in person. My friend and former boss Jon Newman recently wrote about desksides, saying they’re dying. I agree. In a “former life” I flew from Richmond, VA to New York City on a semi-frequent basis for these meetings. Now, reporters (particularly the print ones) are ridiculously overtaxed and even more jaded than I remember. You will occasionally find journalists who appreciate the face-to-face time, but there aren’t many left.
Status: Hard to find
8) Media packets
I would put this tactic in the “nearly dead” category. You still see plenty of them. Just one man’s opinion, but I don’t consider glossy packets a good use of money for most organizations. I’d sooner build a micro-website or even a Facebook page.
Status: Alive, but IMHO a waste of money
7) Video news releases (VNRs)
These are still around, but they’re not nearly as popular as they were 10 years ago. The Bush Administration essentially killed this tactic.
Status: Alive, but hard to get results
6) Audio news releases (ANRs)
This tactic, which I actually promoted as a service when EndGame PR was first founded, was always the less popular younger sister of VNRs. While I’m not aware of the Bush Administration getting in trouble for ANRs, they basically died at the same time as VNRs. They’ve been replaced somewhat by podcasts or web audio soundbites used in social media news releases, but you can still find stations that are willing to accept them.
Status: See #7
5) Media Map
For those of you who aren’t familiar with this tool, it was a server-based media directory. It was horrendously expensive compared to today’s web-based directories. I recall the president of the firm where I worked being elated when I discovered we could save about $40,000 every year by switching to the web-based Bacon’s Mediasource. Oh yeah … I got some major brownie points that week!
Status: Replaced
4) Blast faxing
Remember when we used to pay services to send our releases out to hundreds or even thousands of news outlets? Who faxes anymore? I have a fax machine. I rarely use it.
Status: Replaced
3) Mailed Newsletters
These used to be very popular, but have been replaced by email newsletters that should be backed up by a blog. You’ll likely see a trend in this list. I consider anything that involves using snail mail to be outdated.
Status: Replaced
2) Bacon’s Media Guides
I’m not talking about the online media directories. I’m talking about the paper media guides … the books. I believe they’re still available in some format but, really, if I have to explain why the web-based versions are better then you need to take a course on the “Internets”.
Status: Dinosaur
1) Mailed Reporter Pitches
It’s hard to believe, but if you hunt through the “pitching preferences” in the media guides (the web-based ones of course) you’ll still find some reporters who say they prefer mailed pitches. This is another way of saying, “Don’t pitch me”. However, there was a time before email was widespread when it was a legitimate way to pitch.
Status: Doornail, as in “dead as a”
Honorable Mention: Peter Shankman claims the news release itself is dead, or will be soon, with the exception of financial releases. I disagree. I believe the release is still alive and well, but is in a different form than it was 10 years ago. I believe online distribution has saved the release from becoming a dinosaur. We’ll give it a couple of years and see who is right!
Note: Plenty of people DO still use some of the above tactics. I’m not writing this list to offend anyone. If you’re successful … I’m not judging!
Be sure to read the follow up to this post: 10 Newborn PR Tactics!
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With that said, Tom, I hope you’re not still blast faxing and mailing pitch letters to reporters.
Re: Tom Womack’s thoughts.
While its no doubt true that today’s seniors are not heavy Facebook users, baby boomers and middle age folks in general are heavily adopting many of these tools and over time the users of SM will become the seniors.
I wonder what Tom’s thoughts are about the serious decline we are seeing in traditional media such as newspapers – half of all classified advertising is gone and the number of newspaper layoffs is growing at an incredible pace. In my community, the newspaper has elimianted 2 days of op/ed coverage and just laid off the editorial page editor – on top of many newsroom cuts.
Sure, seniors may want the “touch and feel” of traditional paper newspapers, but the advertising system that supports it is rapidly dying. See Detroit, Flint, Saginaw et al which have stopped 7 day paper delivery in favor of the web. Yes, these seniors are going to have to go online to find out about Social Security.
In the old days, PR folks could direct much of their attention at reporters, “building relationships with editors” ect., but I simply see those tactics as being 50% less important – not dead, just less important. There are simply fewer reporters/editors out there to influence and less print real estate on op/ed and other sections to seek to get placed in.
I agree with you Michael. Well said. I might have posted something along those lines, but didn’t have time to write it last night :)
The thing is, I’ve never suggested PR people abandon traditional media relations altogether. That would be a mistake. The #1 item on this list says “Newspaper-based Media Relations Strategy”. What I meant was a media relations strategy that is build solely on getting newspaper hits. I suppose if you’re selling adult diapers, that might make some sense … and I suppose I should have given that caveat. But, for most businesses, that strategy simply doesn’t make sense. You can’t rely on the traditional media to reach most of a general audience anymore.
Interesting article on the “aging of Facebook”.
http://tinyurl.com/cdugjz
It’s largely tongue-in-cheek, but makes some good points.
I’m at a reporter at a newspaper with 77,000 daily circulation and growing.
If you want to get my attention, e-mail a great story idea with names of people willing to be interviewed. But first, know the kinds of stories I seem to like.
I agree with so much of this, but I have a thought on why number 2) Bacon’s Media Guides is still very useful.
While no one will argue about the power of web-based directories that are thousands of pages long, there are a few important pieces of value in hard copy editions.
- If the internet goes down on either side of the connection, you have lost access. Hard copy works as long as you can see.
- There is a very strong difference in researching in hard copy. There is an intuitive understanding in finding information in a book, both with page number and location on the page.
- You’re also more likely to read through the information on the pages if you don’t find it, instead of searching for key words while analyzing the surrounding context. This allows you to pick up more information that can help you later on.
Technology is wonderful, but if you become dependent on it, something as simple as a lack of access to the internet can cripple an entire day’s work. Books shall never die because they have the ultimate user interface that is intuitive, simple to master and stands by itself.
-Joshua
@joshualogan
Joshua: I understand your points, but in my view there are many, many reasons that the web-based version of media directories are better. They’re updated more frequently, they’re available wherever you have a computer (i.e. you have access if you need a number while you’re on the road), and they’re easily searchable. Books absolutely have a place in the world, but I can’t imagine ever going back to the book version of a media directory.
Steve,
I fully agree that web-based versions are better. Being updated daily/weekly is a *huge* benefit over bi-annual printing.
Every now and then at work, I’m told to search with the hard copy rather than with the website. It’s able to fulfill certain needs on on specific projects.
Regarding ease of searching: it’s only easy to search for specific words or well-tagged documents. Hard copy has already mastered this.
It’s not as efficient, but if the internet goes out or your computer dies, it will still work.
I’ve been in this business for a long time … and the bottom line is that you use whatever works in order to produce the end game — you never know what will turn a reporter’s head — technology has just made it all a lot easier to do … nothing is ever dead if it gets the job done for the client! (except maybe printed media directories – thankfully!)
I hereby name Joanna the Commenter of the Day, for managing to work the name of my PR firm into her comment. Kudos!
:)
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Recently, everything I ever believed about PR went out the window: An organization with which I’m affiliated as a volunteer had the grand opening of its retail storefront in downtown Chicago the weekend before Thanksgiving. This literacy org has been around since 2006 and built quite a reputation and renown for its programs, and collected somewhere close to half a million books to stock the store. The opening was mentioned in all the major Chicago media, from the public radio station to the Chicago Tribune. The organization’s marketing director also spread the word via its 2500-member volunteer “army,” the blog, website, Twitter, Facebook, email — so all the new social media were employed alngside the “old” traditional techniques.
And barely anyone showed up.
So my conclusion almost has to be this: PR itself as a marketing technique is dying. There’s just too much competing for everyone’s attention — both the press as well as the consuming public — and unless you have the $3 million for a Superbowl commercial, it’s a crap shoot as to whether anyone will hear, see or read your message, whether paid for or PR.
Hi Jue,
Sorry to hear about your event, but I don’t think you can use one example as a reason to throw out methods that work, and PR mixed with social media and social networking *does* work. I can’t tell you why your event wasn’t successful, but I’ve had plenty of experiences that are the opposite of yours.
-Steve